AndyP & Lenore
4th September 2010, 07:07 PM
I'm pretty sure most folk on here won't be caught out by this because you're a worldly-wise bunch and can see an obvious scam in the works. but for the benefit of our more vulnerable members - I'm think of the elderly here - I thought I should share this story. So, Elfman and Weefossy read on...:yes nod::laugh:
Our supervisor (Andy) in the cinema just told me of something that happened with his dad. He came down the stairs the other day and found his dad on the phone to "A Company." He had his laptop open and he was being talked through by "A Company" on setting his PC up for remote access by the support assistant. He watched "A Company" connect and start looking round his PC. At this point Andy thought it was Dell who his dad had called for support on something. He asked his dad to cover the mouthpiece and he asked him why he called Dell in the first place. His dad said.... "No, they called me. Said they wanted to check the system status." Andy immediately pulled the phone connection out the back of the router, then spent the next 3 hours getting rid of the sh!t they had installed on it.
After asking his dad some more questions, it seems they weren't Dell at all, they were some kind of PC support company. He can't remember the name they gave but he did do a search for this scam and it seems it's pretty common. A general call goes like so...
Company: "Hi, do you find you PC is running slow just now?"
User: "Yeah."
Company: "OK, if you right-click My Computer, then click 'manage' and tell me how many errors are showing in the error logs".
User: "oh there's about 200 errors showing."
Company: "Ah, sounds like you have a virus. We can sort that for you remotely. We just need you to do the following...."
What follows is they ask you to allow them access to the PC using remote assistance or some other remote enabling service, they install some cheap system maintenance software, do a hard drive defrag, then charge you £300 recurring annually for the their trouble!
The company called Andy's dad back, so he put Andy on the phone and Andy told them which platform to get off on.
Like I say, I'm sure most of you would spot this as a scam a mile away, but would you Mum/Dad etc... So, pass the word around to your family members. Don't get caught out.:thumbs up:
A.:D
Our supervisor (Andy) in the cinema just told me of something that happened with his dad. He came down the stairs the other day and found his dad on the phone to "A Company." He had his laptop open and he was being talked through by "A Company" on setting his PC up for remote access by the support assistant. He watched "A Company" connect and start looking round his PC. At this point Andy thought it was Dell who his dad had called for support on something. He asked his dad to cover the mouthpiece and he asked him why he called Dell in the first place. His dad said.... "No, they called me. Said they wanted to check the system status." Andy immediately pulled the phone connection out the back of the router, then spent the next 3 hours getting rid of the sh!t they had installed on it.
After asking his dad some more questions, it seems they weren't Dell at all, they were some kind of PC support company. He can't remember the name they gave but he did do a search for this scam and it seems it's pretty common. A general call goes like so...
Company: "Hi, do you find you PC is running slow just now?"
User: "Yeah."
Company: "OK, if you right-click My Computer, then click 'manage' and tell me how many errors are showing in the error logs".
User: "oh there's about 200 errors showing."
Company: "Ah, sounds like you have a virus. We can sort that for you remotely. We just need you to do the following...."
What follows is they ask you to allow them access to the PC using remote assistance or some other remote enabling service, they install some cheap system maintenance software, do a hard drive defrag, then charge you £300 recurring annually for the their trouble!
The company called Andy's dad back, so he put Andy on the phone and Andy told them which platform to get off on.
Like I say, I'm sure most of you would spot this as a scam a mile away, but would you Mum/Dad etc... So, pass the word around to your family members. Don't get caught out.:thumbs up:
A.:D